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We only have one heart! I want to take care of mine and help you take care of yours too! This year, I have set a personal goal to raise money for the American Heart Association at my school.
Heart Disease can happen to anyone so it’s really important to be physically active and eat healthy. Did you know that heart disease is our nation’s number one killer? Help me become a lifesaver!
Will you make a donation to help me reach my goal? It’s fast and easy to do on my personal webpage. Just use the link below to support me today!
Your contribution will support the American Heart Association’s work to:
– Put up-to-the-minute research into doctors’ hands so they can better prevent and treat heart disease among patients.
– Fund groundbreaking pediatric heart and stroke research.
– Train more than 9 million health professionals and others each year in emergency cardiovascular care.
Please support me in my efforts – together we can save lives! Thank you very much!

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support YM-GSA

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I’m joining millions of others to help save lives with the American Heart Association!

At my school, I’m learning how I can help make a difference by raising lifesaving donations to help kids with heart disease. I’m also learning about my own heart, and how to keep it healthy. And I’m getting active!

I’m excited about raising money for other kids – kids with hearts that don’t exactly work right and to help fund new medicines and treatments to be discovered.

As governments and corporations around the world move to make their actions and products ever more opaque, a counter-movement is rallying around the opposite of flag of openness and transparency. Borrowing its metaphor from the programming creed of “open source,” this movement is moving beyond the world of bits and bytes to find innovative, collaborative and open solutions to a whole host of problems confronting our everyday lives. Find out more about the open source solution in this week’s GRTV Backgrounder.

Charity millions ‘going to Syrian terror groups’

Some of their cash was “undoubtedly” going to extremist groups, said William Shawcross, the chairman of the Charity Commission.

Conditions on the ground in the midst of conflict made it difficult or impossible for charities to know where aid ended up, he said.

The Disasters Emergency Committee, which represents 14 of Britain’s biggest charities, has raised £20 million since the launch of its Syria Crisis Appeal in March. Its members include the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children.

But it said it was unable to guarantee that no cash was falling into the hands of terrorists.

The Charity Commission is so concerned that it has issued guidance to fund-raising bodies.

“A lot of money is raised that goes to Syria, some of it undoubtedly goes to extremist groups … It is very hard for all organisations to determine that,” Mr Shawcross said.

The commission said it was up to charity trustees to ensure that donors’ generosity, intended to benefit those in need, was not diverted to terrorists.

“There is a risk that funds raised in the name of ‘charity’ generally or under the name of a specific charity are misused to support terrorist activities, with or without the charity’s knowledge,” the commission said.

It warned that “individuals supporting terrorist activity might also claim to work for a charity and trade on its name and legitimacy to gain access to a region or community”.

Peter Clarke, a former head of anti-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police who sits on the board of the commission, said that donations could fall into the wrong hands once the money arrived in Syria or surrounding countries.

http://www.democracynow.org – Two years after the Occupy Wall Street movement shifted the conversation on economic inequality, we look at its origins in New York City’s Zuccotti Park and its continued legacy in a number of different groups active today. We speak with Nicole Carty, actions coordinator with The Other 98 Percent, and a facilitator of general assemblies and spokescouncil meetings during Occupy, where she was a member of the Occupy People of Color Caucus. Also joining us is Nathan Schneider, editor of the website Waging Nonviolence, and a longtime chronicler of the Occupy movement for Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, The New York Times, and The Catholic Worker. Scheider’s new book, “Thank You Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse,” chronicles Occupy’s first year.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to look at the Occupy Wall Street movement and its legacy on its second anniversary. On September 17, 2011, thousands of people marched on the financial district, then formed an encampment in Zuccotti Park, launching a movement that shifted the conversation on economic inequality. Here in New York activists marked the occasion Tuesday with a march to the New York Stock Exchange and the United Nations highlighting a poll for taxing Wall Street transactions and directing the funds to public causes.

AMYGOODMAN: For more, we are joined by two guests. Nicole Carty is an actions coordinator with The Other 98%. During Occupy Wall Street she was a facilitator at general assemblies and spokes counsel meetings and she was a member of the Occupy People of Color Caucus. Nathan Schneider is also with us, editor of the website “Waging Nonviolence,” author of the new book “Thank You Anarchy: Notes From the Occupy Apocalypse.” We welcome you both to Democracy Now!. Why “Occupy Apocalypse,” Nathan?

NATHANSCHNEIDER: That’s a great question. It’s a question I get a lot. The word in Greek meant unveiling, right? It described a moment in which something is revealed that changes our perception of everything and I think pretty accurately describes what happened with Occupy Wall Street, both for us a society in revealing the depth of income inequality, of the corruption of the political system and also of the power of the militarized police state; but also for so many individuals who took part across the country. I have been privileged to meet so many people and to watch them as their lives were changed by this movement, as they became activated and haven’t been able to go back to the way their lives were before.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Nathan, you write in the beginning of the book, you say for nearly two months in the fall of 2011 a square block of granite and honey locust trees in New York’s Financial District, right between Wall Street and the World Trade Center, became a canvas for the image of another world. Two years later how has that canvas been preserved and what are some of the activities that the Occupiers are now involved with?

NATHANSCHNEIDER: Well, to talk about that canvas itself, it is interesting to see the ways in which the movement is memorialized kind of informally in the Financial District. There is still a wall of barricades around the Charging Bull statue. There are still regularly barricades in Zuccotti Park. There are still barricades around Chase Manhattan Plaza which was the original planned sort of decoy site for the Occupation. It is amazing how the security state is still living in fear of this movement. But at the same activists who were involved in it, many of them are spread out across the country in all kinds of networks that have formed through the course of this movement, putting their bodies in the way of the Keystone Pipeline, calling attention to issues like a financial transaction tax, bringing housing activists together around the country to create a stronger movement. There are a number of campaigns that have been profoundly strengthened by networks formed in the Occupy Movement.

AMYGOODMAN: Nicole Carty, where were you two years ago?

NICOLECARTY: Two years ago I was working for the Sundance Channel doing content management. I was just one of many precariate who didn’t really have a solid job and I came in to Occupy because it was the first time I ever had seen people my own age, or anyone for that matter, talking about the deep inequality within this country. It was just kind of this secret and I feel like part of the legacy is that that so unveiled at this point. It is not even questioned.

AMYGOODMAN: So talk about what it was really like, what day did you go to Occupy and describe the community there.

A 12-year-old boy from Ferguson, Mo., has blown us away with his courage and sacrifice.

Devon Melton’s mother, Christina Craig, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and his parents are struggling with the financial burden of her illness.

“I overheard her talking on the phone,” Devon told KTVI. “I just asked her are you ok, because her tears were running down her face. She said she was failing me as a parent because she’s always sick, and I had to help.”

That’s when Melton decided to step in.

He got the idea of holding a garage sale, but he didn’t have much of his own to give away. So he began reaching out to potential donors on Craiglist’s ‘Free’ section with a moving email that soon went viral.

He wrote:

Hi this is Devon. I am the one that messaged you on Craigslist. My mom is amazing she and my dad take care of my two brothers, me and my sister. She has breast cancer and I heard her crying one day after she had her surgery. I thought she was hurt so I went to her door. I heard her say I’m losing everything because I am sick. We are about to lose our home, electric, gas and dad lost his job..I went to my preacher and asked how can I help. He said to do a garage sale. I went to every house on my road getting donations for the garage sale..

My mom deserves the best and I want to help her because she helps everyone. Even with her sick she still works at the food pantry at our church. She says people have to eat and God blessed us to be part of a ministry that can feed people. I just wish it was mom’s turn to be blessed with a timeout like she says she needs. I hope we can get things together and I can really help my mom.

The post inspired a slew of donations from Craigslisters. KTVI reports that he’s received over 200 emails from people wanting to help and has recently had to expand the sale to a bigger location.

He’s raised $120 so far, and plans to continue holding the sale until all the donations are sold.

Meals Per Hour

— GREAT NEWS! TOYOTA IS NOW GOING TO DONATE UP TO 1,000,000 MEALS! FOR EVERY VIDEO VIEW BETWEEN JUNE 20th AND JULY 19th, TOYOTA WILL DONATE ONE MEAL TO FOOD BANK FOR NEW YORK CITY, UP TO 1,000,000 —

The challenge: How can a non-profit implement Toyota’s legendary production system (TPS) to increase the number of meals distributed to people who are still affected by Superstorm Sandy? Watch this movie – and help us do even more.
thank you, and always be KAIZEN.
henry & rel

p.s. watch HD and loud 😉

for more information visit: mealsperhour.com
and to donate visit: foodbanknyc.org

Young Lawyers Lower the Bar to Sharing Economy

Peak Moment 210: “Sharing really is going to save the world!” declares Janelle Orsi, author of The Sharing Solution, noting that it’s fun, doesn’t require special skills — and we can start now. She and Jennifer Kassan co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center to help people formalize collaborative structures like producer cooperatives, cohousing developments and tool lending libraries. They’re working to reduce the hurdles to investing in locally-owned and locally-controlled enterprises. No wonder law students are excited to intern with them! [theSELC.org and sharingsolution.com]

Cohousing Tempts Italians During Real Estate Crisis

Number Zero facade in Turin, Italy. The doors opened on the March 4, 2013, after over five years of work. (Matteo Nobili / cohousingnumerozero.org)

With the Italian real estate market in free fall, increasing numbers of people are tumbling through the gaps. Too rich to claim social housing and too poor to afford a traditional house, some are turning to a new approach—cohousing.

“The concept of cohousing originated in northern Europe in the ’60s,” says Nadia Simionato, spokeswoman for the Italian network Cohousing.it “Then it spread to other countries and reached Italy in 2006.”

The basic idea is to combine in a condominium the autonomy of a private house with the benefits that come from sharing space and resources such as a garden, gymnasium, laundry, gardens, and children’s day care. The whole project is collectively designed and chosen by those who will live in those spaces.

“There’s a ‘gray zone’ of the Italian population who cannot afford a traditional house but that is too rich to access the rankings for the social housing,” says Simionato. “Through the cohousing we think we can solve this critical point.”

But Simionato complains the state is behind the times. “Public administration seems to struggle to understand that cohousing is a successful model. Worldwide there are over a thousand examples of cohousing, from a few family members to dozens. In Italy we have developed three projects, already in place, and we are working with two others, connecting prospective buyers and designers.”

http://www.democracynow.org – As Republicans move to cut billions of dollars in funding for food stamps, a new report finds one in six Americans live in a household that cannot afford adequate food. In “Nourishing Change: Fulfilling the Right to Food in the United States,” the International Human Rights Clinic at New York University’s School of Law reports that of these 50 million people going hungry, nearly 17 million are children. Food insecurity has skyrocketed since the economic downturn, with an additional 14 million people classified as food insecure in 2011 than in 2007. The report comes as Congress is renegotiating the Farm Bill and proposing serious cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. Millions of Americans currently rely on the program to feed themselves and their families. The report’s co-author, Smita Narula of the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU’s School of Law, joins us to discuss her findings and why she is calling on the U.S. government to ensure that all Americans have access to sufficient, nutritious food.

Food stamp cuts hurt the economy and taxpayers along with the poor

To hear Republicans — and some Democrats — in Congress talk, you’d think food-stamp dollars just disappear into a black hole. The prevailing debate in the Senate and House versions of the farm bill, which contains funding for food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), is over how much to cut.

But when more than 15 percent of Americans remain impoverished, slashing food assistance for the poor makes no sense in humanitarian, economic or public-health terms.

The House bill which is gaining steam after passage by the Agriculture Committee last week, is the more draconian of the two. It would chop $20 billion over 10 years from SNAP, and its changes to food-stamp eligibility rules would cut off vital sustenance for about 2 million low-income people, including seniors and families with children.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 210,000 children in low-income families would lose their free school meals under the House plan.

The Senate version would cut far less, though a final figure will be hashed out by a conference committee in June. But the attacks on food assistance for the poor are deeply misguided and are only going to get worse.

The proposed House budget from Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., seeks to gut food stamps by an additional $135 billion through block grants to states.

Yet government and other studies clearly show that food stamps are among the most wisely spent public dollars, providing essential nourishment and public health benefits to low-income people as well as economic stimulus to rural and urban communities.

These are returns on spending that you won’t find in the corporate tax giveaways and military spending boondoggles routinely supported by both political parties. even as they scream for austerity when it comes to slashing “entitlements” and food assistance for the poor.

The Trust for America’s Health, a health advocacy organization that focuses on disease prevention, warned recently of the consequences of cutting food stamps: “If the nation continues to underfund vital public health programs, we will never achieve long-term fiscal stability, as it will be impossible to help people get/stay healthy, happy and productive.”

Indeed, According to a 2011 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “research shows that low-income households participating in SNAP have access to more food energy, protein and a broad array of essential vitamins and minerals in their home food supply compared to eligible nonparticipants.”

A song I wrote when I visited the site after 9/11; always thought a little heavy, but it is time to get it out there. All photos taken from the web, if there is any infringement, please contact me, I will include credits. Included on my CD “Renegade of the Light Brigade” during the remix and urging of the late, great Steve Burgh.

A pit bull saved a woman from a fire in her Long Island, New York home on Friday, barking to alert her as the flames began to spread from the front to the back of the house.

Jackie Bonasera said she was drying her hair in an upstairs bathroom of the home on Gabriele Drive in East Norwich when she heard the dog barking. She ran downstairs and saw the flames on the side of her garage.

She was able to escape the house.

“I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog – I’m like, ‘He saved my life, I have to save his,'” Bonasera recounted.Read Full Article and Watch Video Here

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